Monthly Archives: August 2014

Start thinking about your future

August 28, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

If you’ve just started your final year at college or sixth form, it might still seem a bit early to start thinking about what you’re going to do when you finish, but starting to consider your options now will give you more time to prepare and could ultimately make the difference in going on to do what you want. Now is a great time to start thinking about the best route in to your career of choice. Teachers and friends will soon be talking about university applications, but you shouldn’t feel under any pressure or obligation to want to go […]

Apprenticeships are just as good as university

August 26, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Business Secretary last week launched a new campaign to support apprenticeships. The ‘Get In. Go Far’ campaign is designed to encourage more young people into Apprenticeships by showcasing the huge variety of Apprenticeships available and the quality of the training and qualifications gained through vocational training. The campaign features real apprentices sharing their experiences. At the launch of this new ‘Get In. Go Far’ campaign, Cable stated that “For too long there has been a divide between university and vocational education which has been damaging for both employers and young people. Placing university degrees and apprenticeships […]

Focus on…Team Leader & Management Apprenticeships

August 21, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

Team Leader & Management apprenticeships are the perfect way to leading you into a career where you will need the vital skills in order to lead a successful and efficient team, as well as ensuring that customers and staff are kept happy and any issues dealt with care. With a Team Leader & Management apprenticeship you will be given the powerful opportunity to experience first-hand day-to-day roles and tasks to ensure that you will be confident from the very first day of your employment after completing your apprenticeship. The apprenticeship for Team Leader & Management that are offered at ATG […]

Boost for Engineering Apprenticeships

August 19, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

The UK government has committed to investing £30 million in the engineering sector, with particular focus on increasing the supply of engineers, inspiring women to join the sector and eliminating skills shortages in small engineering businesses. As we have discussed here in the ATG News pages before, there are several different types of Engineering Apprenticeships available, and lots of different job roles that you could go for. And engineering is changing from being such a male orientated profession, with more women now joining the sector – just look at ATG Apprenticeships Engineering Apprentice Fay Chicken, who was the only girl […]

Apprenticeship Vacancies Closing

August 14, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

If you’ve been considering your options for the future, you might have thought about applying for an Apprenticeship. If you’ve not yet applied, though, now is the time to browse the vacancies on ATG Apprenticeships and submit your application – we have around 50 vacancies available on the website at the moment, but the closing date for applications is the end of this month! Applying for a vacancy on the site is really straightforward, especially if you follow our guide to the application process and have your CV and covering letter ready. We’ve also provided some tips and hints of […]

Ready for your exam results?

August 12, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

Are you ready to receive your exam results soon? Have you made a decision about what you’re going to do next? If you’re not sure about going on to further education because you’re put off by the prospect of spending more time in the classroom, or you’re worried about the costs of going to university, why not consider an Apprenticeship? Apprenticeships offer you a great route to a nationally recognised qualification. And rather than getting in to debt, you will actually be earning as you learn in a full-time job role. This also means that you will be applying the […]

Encouraging more women into ‘male’ apprenticeships

August 7, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

New research by a leading think tank has suggested that it could help to close the gender pay gap by encouraging more women to carry out apprenticeships in industry sectors that are traditionally very male-dominated. The company compared the full-time pay of staff in industries with high percentages of male apprentices to that of staff in industries that have high proportions of females, and found there to be a large pay gap. They suggest that encouraging young women into apprenticeships in the ‘male industries’ would help to decrease the pay gap across all types of work. Whether you are male […]

Focus on…How to Write Your Covering Letter

August 5, 2014 Stephen Smyth - No Comments

We’ve talked before about preparing your CV and the Apprenticeship application process, and have mentioned that as part of applying for a vacancy you will also need a covering letter. A covering letter can be almost as tough as your CV if you’re not sure what you need to include in it, so we thought we’d help you out with a brief overview on how to write your covering letter. So what’s a covering letter for anyway? Well, it acts as an introduction to your CV and is a great place to highlight your qualities to a potential employer. It […]